


It's the End of the World, But Not Really

by Aiyan



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cap and Iron Man are still not the best buddies, Established Relationship, Let's pretend Infinity War didn't happen and there's a zombie apocalypse instead, M/M, Peter is a Gen Z kid, Peter is sixteen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-07 06:06:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15212843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aiyan/pseuds/Aiyan
Summary: Peter thought that his relationship with Tony Stark making the front pages is the worst possible nightmare that there is. Turns out he's wrong. Because on his way to an interview briefing, he, Tony, and Pepper get stuck in the former Avengers Tower, trying to spare their lives from....zombies?It's a tough life Peter's living.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first time writing a Starker/MCU fanfiction. Also the first fic I've written in like, a reaaally long while.

       

        Peter thought that his relationship with Tony making the headlines is the scariest living nightmare that there is. Tony thought so too. But as it turns out, even great minds combined such as theirs, one undoubtedly a brilliant kid and one genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, could still be wrong. Extremely wrong. Even Pepper Potts, Tony’s favorite CEO in the whole entire world, hadn’t seen this coming. Because they were only human, and humans fail to realize threats especially if those threats didn’t threaten them directly in the first place.

       

        But now…now there is _this_.

     

           Peter watched as the _plague_ below swarmed the building from all directions. He is now at the balcony of what previously was Stark Tower, which Tony had sold about six months ago, but apparently the buyer hadn’t moved in yet and promptly left the premises practically abandoned. Well, maybe ‘abandoned’ is not the correct term, as while they were in their hurry escaping the _things_ that chased them downstairs, Tony had yelled “FRIDAY! Start-up!”. And that was when the entire tower lit up on Iron Man’s command, and Pepper, who had been breathlessly running alongside them, gawked at her ex and said, “You left your AI?!”, to which Tony just shrugged and replied with a nonchalant, “Just part of her.”

     

          Under normal circumstances which didn’t include them being chased by _zombies—_ god, Peter hated to call them that, because this is the _real_ world, but then again in this real world five years ago Tony Stark had been able to come out of an alien wormhole—the sixteen-year old would have shaken his head grinning at the thought that that was just very much like what Tony would do. Also under normal circumstances, he would feel awkward being left with Tony and Pepper, especially when the last time he’d been with the two was right before the Potts-Stark engagement was announced. But at this time, it felt far away.

          

      Now he stood on the edge of the balcony, rapid-firing and web-grenading the zombies who somehow managed to climb on top of the others. The distance is god-knows how many storeys below and the creatures would most likely not reach their floor, but what your brain tells you and what exactly you’re gonna do at the event itself are two very different things. Also, never in his life did he consider that he’ll be fighting the undead.

     

         “Man, this makes me wish yesterday was the height of my nightmares.” Peter says as he aims at and stuns a zombie that was trying to claw at the wall below.

       

       “Man, this makes me just want to volunteer for questioning by the authorities.” Tony says in a similar tone, his faceplate retracting as he peered at the crowd beside Peter. It had been exactly a day since news of Tony Stark, forty-seven years of age, had been caught smooching at the back of his car with Peter Parker, sixteen-year old genius kid from Queens. Both Peter and Tony didn’t know who took the damn photo but they’d gladly treat the person to dinner with dessert if it meant getting out of a Resident Evil reboot.

   

           “That’s gonna be a PR nightmare but I’d gladly have that too instead of this.” Pepper sighed behind them, taking a StarkPad out of her bag. Peter really commends her talent in adapting. One moment Pepper was almost bitten to death, and now she’s clicking her heels towards a covered couch like the company boss that she is. “FRIDAY, link me in.” she says as she begins to look up stuff.

     

         A good full minute of him and Tony gawking at the army of undead surrounding their building was spent until Iron Man’s faceplate closed again and Tony began speaking.

     

         “Happy! How are things there?” he asked, worry evident. Pepper stood up from the couch to listen in and Peter stepped back from the balcony edge. Happy had been the one who sped-drove to the Parkers’ apartment to fetch May to take her to a safer place, because Tony had been adamant that Peter is still too reckless to be sent to a mission like that. Peter fought him at first, but was ultimately convinced when Tony pulled the your-aunt-wouldn’t-allow-you-to-leave-when-she-gets-a-hold-of-you card. Besides, Peter also knew how much of a skilled man Happy actually is, despite what his cardiogram says.

      

          “Loud speak.” Tony told his AI. Peter could hear the conversation quite well, spider senses and all, but he guesses it was for Pepper’s sake.

   

             “…yeah.” Happy said. “We’re safe. Too safe, in fact. It seems like Manhattan alone is plagued. This one dumbass had the balls to tell me I was speeding and even gave me a ticket. It’s like no one’s been informed of what’s happening there yet.” In the background, Peter could hear Aunt May asking rather loudly “Is Peter there?” and other voices as well… _Are those Ned and Michelle?_

    

            “That’s…oddly true.” Pepper appeared between Peter and Tony, tablet in her hand, scrolling through what looked like webpages. “Look, your relationship is still top news. Nothing of Manhattan.” She paused scrolling and looked at Spider-man and Iron Man. “Any ideas on who’s powerful enough to filter something this big out of the news?”

    

            “End call.” Tony said and his faceplate retracted once again. He turned to Pepper. “What? Expect me to say ‘ _Umbrella Corporation’_?”

      

          “Hammer?”

  

              “Nah, Hammer’s locked up. Also too stupid to take precautionary measures.” He turned to Peter. “Kid, you got a clue who can filter human rabies out from public info stream?”

     

           “um.” Was all that Peter managed, because he got nothing. _Very nice, Parker. Very eloquent._

     

           “That’s cool, too.” Tony began to hover indoors. “We’ll just figure something out. Preferably within the day. Preferably with help, which wouldn’t come because we’re closed off.” The plastic cover on the couch melts when an Iron Man palm neared it but Tony took a seat and crossed his legs nevertheless. “But we’ve got New York’s #1 Brain so we’ll definitely solve this.”

    

            Peter followed inside, taking off his mask. “Yeah, I don’t have doubts when we have Miss Potts on our side.”

      

           Pepper plops back on her previous position on the couch, leans on the tall armrest, and thanks Peter, before they both chuckle when Tony rolls his eyes at them.

       

         Yeah, it’s definitely an apocalypse.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed this one! It's still a little short since it's only the beginning and I'm still testing the waters, but I promise the future chapters will be longer! Please comment below what you think! Thank you for reading!!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter just wanted to view memes.

 

              Peter is pissed off that he’s missing out on Memezar’s new posts in Instagram. He didn’t really think that _no_ internet connection would be a thing in an apocalypse, because who in the heck would have the time to cut off their company’s power when they’re busy running for their lives, but apparently, it is in this one. Of course, he knew Tony and Pepper are linked into some kind of system, given that Pepper had shown them webpages earlier, but those could just be paid news subscriptions and not _actual_ connection. If that’s even a thing. He groans.

 

             “What?” Tony looks up from Pepper’s tablet which he borrowed. The man had been typing away for about half an hour now. Peter’s about seventy six percent sure he isn’t even looking for updates anymore.

 

              “Uh, nothing serious.”  Peter sets his phone down on the table beside him and repositions himself so that his feet are dangling off the breakfast counter. The older man raised an eyebrow and it prompted the teen to continue, “Just a Gen Z thing, I guess? No internet bores me?”

 

              It’s Pepper’s turn to look at him oddly. “You have Karen, right?” she says as if that’s supposed to solve his problem. Not the zombie-related one. _The_ Memezar-related one.

 

             When Peter looks back at Tony, the man is staring at Pepper like she had just cursed three of his Iron Man marks to hell. Pepper catches sight of this and tilts her head.

 

             “What—” she starts, but some kind of realization dawns on her exactly point zero five seconds later and she puts a hand on her face, head down and drawing an extraordinarily long sigh. “Tony, you didn’t.”

 

             “What?” Tony drops the StarkPad on the couch in favour of raising his hands, as if denying a rather offensive accusation. “No, shh, Pepper? I’m only trying to protect something precious. Okay? I don’t mean to become an intruder, but it’s a measure I gotta take in order for the whole thing to work.”

 

             Pepper still hasn’t taken her hand off her face. She chuckles. _Chuckles_. “Intruding is like second nature to you, Tony. I know that as your co-worker, friend, and ex.”

 

 _Whoa she’s pulling the ex card. What is happening?_ Peter’s just so lost. He just wanted to view memes. But, he’s still mildly disturbed about Pepper bringing up the past so he jumps off the bar and intentionally making his feet thud against the flooring to make his presence known. You know, in case the two adults in the room forgot that he’s still there.

 

               “Sorry about that, Peter.” Pepper catches on fast and regards him immediately. She finally takes her hand off her face, but then starts massaging her temples with the same hand.

 

               “What’s going on?” he asks, facing Pepper because Tony looked like a three-year old refusing to spit out whatever he put in his mouth. Peter finds it amusing, but he’s too curious and confused to find time to swoon.

 

               “Well you see…” Pepper starts, and Tony picks up the StarkPad again, pretending to be busy. Pepper sighs at him one more time before continuing, “Mr. Anthony Edward Stark here has, aside from statutory rape, committed the criminal offence of intruding in your private life without your consent.” Peter cringed at the mention of statutory rape but he didn’t speak, so Pepper added, “Long story short, Tony’s been spying on you through FRIDAY’s link to Karen’s system.”

 

                 Peter hears Tony gulping before the older man speaks, “Which means you do _have_ internet. Well, not exactly internet, but something like that. I’ve created something similar back when I was still in MIT but I’ve only really worked on it after that Loki incident which threatened the safety of the entire planet, so.” He shrugs. “Anyway, yeah. It’s kinda like the web. _Heh._ The _web_.”

 

               “And for the record,” he tells Pepper, “we sold that tech to Homeland Security and were given authorization to use it whenever necessary.” He frowns. “ _God,_ imagine? I had to seek US approval for a system that _I_ invented?” He rolls his eyes. “Ugh, baby boomer mentality. We need more open-minded millennials taking the reins in this country. Oh, uh, _bleghh_ , did I really just say that? I take it back. Millennials are horrible and mistake ice cream for coffee. You only call coffee ‘coffee’ when it’s black, with only minimal sugar, not the whipped cream gangbangs they serve at every street in New York. Or planet. Also, everyone’s wrong anyway, which is why America’s debt is in strong competition with my net worth.”

 

                Tony looks at him before standing up and leaving the StarkPad on the couch again in favour of getting a drink from the bar. The drinks aren’t there. And there isn’t a fridge either. Because, you know, _the move_. But somewhere in between the lines Peter gets that it was just out of habit that Tony does this. He does this when he’s rather nervous. Tony Stark very rarely gets nervous.

 

                Tony stops walking on the bar edge opposite Peter when he finally realizes that his stuff are indeed no longer there anymore. He crinkles his nose and does that one slow blink he does when he’s inwardly pep-talking himself. “Look, Peter?” Peter looks at him. “I don’t mean to crash your privacy, but I just wanted to look after you.” He does that pause that he does when he’s waiting for people to approve of what he’d previously said.

 

                 “I understand that you just wanted to look after me.” Peter says, because no matter how much he disliked being called a kid, that’s what he is. Legally, at least. No kid just ups and goes to Earth’s most capable bachelor _and_ superhero, and professes their undying sexual frustrations over them.

 

               Before Peter’s mind even spirals down a drain with no bottom, he cracks a knuckle as he went on, “But, uh…I take it you’ve seen more than just what you need to see, right?” He can feel his face heating up. “I don’t think I’ll approve of that, had you asked me in the first place. Also, you and I both know that I’m pretty strong and capable of defending myself in times of danger.”

 

              “Yeah, but did we expect a freakin’ zombie apocalypse? No.” Tony gesticulates. “I’m gonna provide all protection that I can for you.”

 

               Peter pretends not to understand the double meaning in that statement.

 

==

                Four hours in and Peter’s phone finally died. He goes into one of what used to be guest rooms and sat his phone down a small dock in the wall and kindly asked FRIDAY to please charge his phone, to which the AI replied in an equally kind voice, “Gladly, Mr.Parker.”

 

                Which meant now, he didn’t have anything else to do. The past four hours had been spent with him, Tony, and Pepper pitching in ideas on who and what might have caused the catastrophe happening progressively outside their building now. When Peter came back to the penthouse, because really he was only allowed by Mr.Stark exactly two minutes to go charge his phone and leave it there, he finds Pepper and Tony almost yelling at each other. Keyword _almost_. And when he listens in he quickly connects the dots and he almost doesn’t blame Tony for shouting.

 

                “For the nth time, Pepper.” Tony is sitting on the floor doing something to the unattached part of Iron Man’s leg. “I am _not_ calling Steve.”

 

                “But Tony!” Came Pepper’s reply. “This is a totally, utterly valid reason to call him!”

 

                “Well I don’t have that horrible phone he FedEx-ed to me.”

 

                “You’re not gonna lie to me about that. I was there when you scanned his number on your phone.”

 

                “My point still stands.”

 

                “That point being…?”

 

                “…that I’m not calling him.”

 

                “Tony!”

 

                Tony releases a sigh as he reattaches the leg part on Iron Man. And then he uncrosses his own legs on the floor and stands up and that’s when he spots Peter. “Hey kid, you’re late for uh,” he glances at his wrist which didn’t have a watch wrapped around it. “...approximately eighteen seconds.”

 

                Peter chooses to ignore that and walks closer to the two. “So are we inviting anybody?”

 

                Pepper sighs beside him. “Yes. Peter. Please tell him to just call Steve.” She looks pointedly at Tony. “We really need all the help we can get.”

 

                Tony sighs as well and looks at Peter, and it’s a look that almost says _if you say yes I should, then yes…I should_. And Peter understands that and maybe feels a little giddy inside thinking that Tony’s letting him decide on something terribly important, but now’s not really the right time for any of that. He plops down on the couch and drums his fingers on his knees before perking up again.

 

                “How about Vision?” he offers. Because Vision’s a safe play. If they tell Vision what’s happening then Vision tells Wanda. And then Wanda tells Cap, and that’s not what Tony wants but hey, at least he isn’t calling him directly.

 

                “I am so ashamed that I didn’t think of that.” Tony sits down beside him. “Wanda will tell Cap, but we don’t really have much of a choice.”

 

                “ _You_ don’t really have much of a choice.” Pepper mutters. Tony likely didn’t hear it but Peter did.

 

                “Actually, no.” Peter thinks out loud. “How about let’s just have Vision alone? Or him and Wanda if she insists, but not the others.” He gets both Tony and Pepper to look at him. “Y’know…because there are zombies here and we don’t really want to risk Black Widow and the others trying to eat us? But Vision could float through objects and people, and Wanda…” he makes weird gestures with his fingers in an attempt to imitate Scarlet Witch, “…does magic.”

 

                The corners of Tony’s lips tug into a small smile. “Can I kiss you.” It didn’t even need a question mark.

 

                But as soon as Pepper had rolled her eyes and turned away, Peter’s phone blares from the next room.

 

                “Um.” Peter says, clipped. He steps back from Mr.Stark, who is inching closer, and bolts to where his phone is blasting the chorus of a Neiked song.

 

\--

                Peter stares at the unknown number displayed on his phone screen and startles when he notices Tony standing in the doorway.

 

                “Who’s that?” the older man starts.

 

               “I don’t know. The number’s not saved.” Peter keeps staring at it. Somehow, the combination of digits look familiar, but he couldn’t remember when he saved this number and can’t attach a face to it. He decides he should just answer the call, even though this is a creepy time to receive calls. It isn’t like he had friends in other states, and Michelle’s and Ned’s and Aunt May’s numbers are definitely saved in his phone.

 

                His thumb hovers over the green icon and he swipes to answer the call. He puts the phone against his ear and ignores how Tony quirks a brow at the action. Obviously Mr.Stark gets easily jealous over things he shouldn’t even be worrying about. Like that one time he fetched Peter from a party and Tony was almost ready to smack Flash in the face because the boy had an arm around Peter and Peter was squirming, to which Peter had all but laughed about when they were already in Tony’s Audi and that which led to an absolute wave of stomach ache that made Tony pull over to the nearest shrubbery so that he could help Peter heave the alcohol out of his system.

               

                “Who is this?” Peter inquires.

                For a moment, there is only silence. And Peter thinks that maybe it’s just a wrong number kind of thing, because those things happen, and he almost ends the call when the person on the other line speaks.

 

                “Hey, Peter.” A male voice says, and Peter’s eyes widen in recognition. He almost doesn’t notice Tony frowning.

 

                “ _Harry?_ ”

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess that leaves a big hint on the plot? Please comment your thoughts below!


End file.
